ishing
between a civil and a political right. But the Supreme Court has
recognized this distinction and has designated Congress as the power to
right a political wrong. The Fifteenth Amendment gives Congress power to
enforce its provisions. The power would seem to be inherent in government
itself; but anticipating that the enforcement of the Amendment might
involve difficulty, they made the superorogatory declaration. Moreover,
they went further, and passed laws by which they provided for such
enforcement. These the Supreme Court has so far declared insufficient. It
is for Congress to make more laws. It is for colored men and for white men
who are not content to see the blood-bought results of the Civil War
nullified, to urge and direct public opinion to the point where it will
demand stringent legislation to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments. This demand will rest in law, in morals and in true
statesmanship; no difficulties attending it could be worse than the
present ignoble attitude of the Nation toward its own laws and its own
ideals--without courage to enforce them, without conscience to change
them, the United States presents the spectacle of a Nation drifting
aimlessly, so far as this vital, National problem is concerned, upon the
sea of irresolution, toward the maelstrom of anarchy.

The right of Congress, under the Fourteenth Amendment, to reduce Southern
representation can hardly be disputed. But Congress has a simpler and more
direct method to accomplish the same end. It is the sole judge of the
qualifications of its own members, and the sole judge of whether any
member presenting his credentials has met those qualifications. It can
refuse to seat any member who comes from a district where voters have been
disfranchised: it can judge for itself whether this has been done, and
there is no appeal from its decision.

If, when it has passed a law, any Court shall refuse to obey its behests,
it can impeach the judges. If any president refuse to lend the executive
arm of the government to the enforcement of the law, it can impeach the
president. No such extreme measures are likely to be necessary for the
enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments--and the
Thirteenth, which is also threatened--but they are mentioned as showing
that Congress is supreme; and Congress proceeds, the House directly, the
Senate indirectly, from the people and is governed by public opinion. If
the reduction of So